If you were a kid in the late 1980s and the 1990s, you probably remember a few key things about the pop culture of the time. If you are a young girl, you most certainly remember one huge part of it: American Girls dolls. What began as a simple mail-order company turned into a mega-empire that sold the dolls for $100 apiece, and the story behind it is pretty fascinating.
Pleasant Rowland, a retired writer and teacher, started the company in 1986. She simply wanted to create dolls that came with their own historical stories. The company started off with three: Samantha, Mollie, and Kirsten. Each doll represented a different era in the United States, and each carried her own stories, clothing, and personality. Kirsten’s family were Swedish immigrants who lived in Minnesota and grappled with pushing American Indians from their ancestral homes. Samantha was an orphan who lived with her grandmother during the Edwardian Era and who had a best friend that had worked in factories, and Mollie lived in the Midwest during World War II.
The line expanded, and there have been dozens of dolls over the years. Each comes with her own unique back story, which is often pulled from the details of the era that the doll represents. While none of the dolls are based on the lives of actual people who lived, the history that surrounds their stories is very real.
Source : https://www.littlethings.com/real-life-stories-american-girls-dolls/